What's happening?
I'm Brian Tong here and welcome to the Apple Byte for all the good and bad inside the world of Apple.
Now, the anticipation and the hype is at an all time high and we're giving you the last few Apple Bytes of info before the big A's announcement.
Now, the Cupertino kids announced the official invitation on the event.
It will be held at the company headquarters on October 4th.
That's Tuesday at 10 a.m.
and it's a perfect timing since that's right after my Bikram Yoga class.
That's right.
I'm flexible.
And, the special event is titled "Let's Talk iPhone." Now everyone has been waiting because there's still lot of mysteries surrounding what Apple would actually release at this event.
According to 9to5Mac, new part numbers for a new iPhone updated iPhone 4S and iPod Touches have already appeared in Apple's inventory system.
The next-gen iPhone known as N94 and Apple's iOS SDK Kit has appeared in Apple's inventory system and according to them it pack some A5 dual-core processor,
a Qualcomm Gobi Baseband chips for GSM and CDMA compatibility with an 8-megapixel camera and 1 gig of RAM.
Now, they also report two products with the N90A part number that have appeared and are believed to be black and white models for a modified 8 gig iPhone 4 that might put the new low-end budget iPhone.
The current iPhone 4's part number is known as N90.
Now, three iPod Touch models with part numbers N81A have appeared and they're believed to be the rumored white iPod Touches since N81
represents the current black iPod Touch and at that point to just a cosmetic change with the same at 32 and 64 gig options alongside the current black ones.
So, when can we expect the official launch so we can gather our lounge chairs and blankies and wait in long lines for over ten hours without a bathroom break?
Well, according to Boy Genius report, AT&T employees have been blocked from taking any vacations during the first two weeks of October.
Earlier this month, it was reported that Sprint was doing the same.
At the time of the show, the launch date is still up in the air and none
of my retail contacts have been notified of any official blackout period.
Now, as we get closer of what other features might we expect to the next iPhone.
According to Macotakara, a China Unicom rep told onlookers during a Keynote and Macworld Asia 2011 that the iPhone 5 will have HSPA+ capabilities for faster high speed data.
Now, we also included this slide just to make sure people are paying attention.
China Unicom was the first carrier to have the iPhone 4. So, if you got to be wondering what that guy was smoking
to publicly announce that.
Probably the same thing that AT&T in the U.S. has been smoking has since they've been marketing the HSPA+ as 4G all this time.
Now, other revelations from 9to5mac point the biggest new feature in the next-gen iPhone called Assistant.
It's the next evolution of voice control and based on their acquisition of the Siri Assistant.
Now, that's all voice-controlled and it will allow you to make appointments that are instantly added to your counter, composed voice to text messages, and creating reminders for buying that rash ointment you forgot about.
It's still itchy.
Now, the Assistant will also be able to ask you questions for more details just like a conversation and if this is true, I won't need friends anymore.
Now, we'll find out about the real facts on October 4th.
But, let's just tease you a little bit with what it might look like.
The team at Benm.at decided to do what no one else would and build a prototype iPhone 5 based on the CAD designs, case leaks, and mockups of the rumor and let me remind you non-existent iPhone 5.
Now, look at how dramatically he reveals it.
Dude, stop starring at me like that and I'm still impressed but awkwardly blown away by watching an Asian guy really fluent in German.
-[unk].
-Now, the prototype was a machine from a solid block of aluminum and treated with glass pearls.
It even features the teardrop design and honestly, that looks really nice but I might as well have made and unlock this monster out of a sandwich.
And, if you're wondering,
do people really care about this phone?
All this time, are people really going to make the switch?
Well, 41 percent of mobile consumers planned to purchase the iPhone 5 and that's according to a study by InMobi that covered users in the U.S., Mexico, and Canada.
In addition to that, 52 percent of BlackBerry users planned to switch to iPhone.
51 percent of current iPhone users planned to upgrade to the 5 for their purchase.
And, 27 percent of android users would join the side of the computer [unk] company.
Now also, 50 percent of all those people surveyed are planning to upgrade within the next six months and those numbers are scary.
But, it's Apple that might be a little scared after Amazon rock the tech world with their Kindle Fire announcement that is sure to change the tablet game.
The Kindle Fire is a 7-inch LCD screen tablet that's based on the RIM PlayBook design.
It will run Amazon's own custom UI on top of android.
There's no web camera, microphone, or 3G.
But, you know what.
It doesn't matter because it's $199.
Amazon is one of the few companies that has the content library with movies, music books, and magazine to support a content consumption device like a tablet and although it's not directly competing with the iPad, it instantly elevated itself to the best android tablet.
And, what's the general consumer going to do this holiday season when they look at an iPad for $499 or a Kindle Fire for $199?
It will be a very interesting holiday to see how it plays out but kudos to Kindle.
It can only get more interesting when they release future hardware and a larger tablet.
Alright,
that's gonna do it for this week's show but we'll find out all the new goodies Apple is dropping on us on next week's show.
E-mail us at the applebyte@cnet.com <mailto:applebyte@cnet.com> with your reaction to Apple's announcements.
I'm Brian Tong and we'll catch you guys next time for another Byte of the Apple.
